Guwahati, August 26: The Regional Review Meeting of Northeastern states of India was ceremonially inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Assam, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma along with Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways and Ayush, Sarbananda Sonowal here today.
The ceremony was also attended by health ministers of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura along with senior officials from Meghalaya, Nagaland as well as other states of the region.
The Union Minister of State for Ayush and Women & Child Development, Dr. Mahendrabhai Munjapara along with Secretary of Ministry of Ayush, Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha and other senior officials from the ministry, state governments were also present.
The Union Ayush Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal chaired the Regional Review Meeting of Northeastern states here today. During the meeting, all the participating states – Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura presented detailed presentations on the state of Ayush and progress of leading Ayush programmes under implementation.
The Health Ministers of the states who physically attended and deliberated in the brainstorming session were Alo Libang of Arunachal Pradesh; Dr Sapam Ranjan Singh of Manipur; Dr R Lalthangliana of Mizoram; Kunga Nima Lepcha of Sikkim and Finance Minister of Tripura, Pranajit Singha Roy.
Speaking on the occasion, the Union Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal said, that they had a very fruitful discussion on the promotion and propagation of Ayush system of medicine in the Northeast region of the country.
Along with the rest of the world, the importance and popularity of traditional system of medicine has risen significantly in our beautiful region of Northeast. He congratulate all our states in the region for taking onus in this regard as is evident from the progress we have achieved in propagating Ayush system of medicine in the region.
Under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi ji, India has made significant progress in reinventing the age old and proven benefits of traditional system of medicine to enrich the quality of lives of the people.
The Prime Minister has not only encouraged the use of traditional medicine in India but has also led a global movement to invest, innovate and integrate traditional medicine with modern medicine to develop a holistic line of healthcare solutions aimed at enriching the quality of lives.
In this spirit, I would like to call all the states of northeast India to explore the possibility of setting up an Integrated Ayush Department in all its leading state hospitals, in line with the setting up of similar departments in all 19 AIIMS, under the guidance of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji.
Today, they are presented with this unique opportunity to kick start a movement to set up integrated medicine departments in all our leading state hospitals, thereby popularising and implementing the concept of Integrated medicine to be emulated by the whole country.
The people of Northeast region, can realise the vision of Modi ji as the engine of India’s movement towards holistic healthcare, further boost the traditional medicine practices and become hub of an Ayush led economic growth, promoting employment & trade for the region.
During the deliberations, the Health Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Alo Libang said that the state is planning to set up a full fledged Directorate of Ayush Healthcare Services to promote traditional medicine in the Himalayan state.
A Special Panchakarma Centre in the middle of Loktak lake was proposed to be set up, as confirmed by the Health Minister of Manipur, Dr Sapam Ranjan Singh.
The Mizoram Health Minister, Dr R Lalthangliana also applauded the benefit of traditional medicine and how Ayush gram initiative and Jan Arogya Samiti is popularising the Ayush system of medicine in the state.
Adding further, Sarbananda Sonowal added, the Prime Minsiter Mr.Narendra Modi led Government has approved for operationalisation of 12,500 Ayush Health & Wellness Centres (AHWCs) by the Ministry of Ayush through state governments as a component of Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) of National Ayush Mission (NAM) in a phased manner by 2023-24.
The main objectives are to establish holistic wellness model based on AYUSH principles and practices, to empower masses for “self care” to reduce the disease burden, out of pocket expenditure and to provide informed choice to the needy public. Ministry of Ayush has released Rs. 449.64 crores to NE States under NAM from 2014-15 to 2022-23.
Ministry has also supported 33 Integrated Ayush hospitals in NE states from 2014-15 to 2022-23 and out of that 09 are operational as reported by States. Out of 12,500 AHWCs,Ministry has supported 879AHWCs supported in NE States and out of that 492 are reported functional by the NE States.”
Ministry of Ayush is supporting the efforts of State/UT Governments for implementation of different activities as proposed by the States through their respective State Annual Action Plans (SAAPs) through Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) of National Ayush Mission (NAM).
NAM is being implemented with the vision and objectives to provide Ayush health care services throughout the country by strengthening and improving Ayush healthcare facilities, to provide informed choice to the needy public, to enhance and strengthen the infrastructure of Ayush Education Institutions.
National Ayush Mission (NAM) is the flagship scheme of Ministry of Ayush, being implemented through State/UT Governments for development and promotion of Ayush systems in the country.
The objective of this Regional Review Meeting is to review the implementation of NAM in NE States and knowledge sharing between the States, National Institutes and Peripheral Research Institutes under Research Councils of Ministry of Ayush and their active support for implementation of NAM Scheme.
